Police hunt possible online predator
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

A young El Campo woman did just the right thing when she accidentally came across a possible pedophile while online.

According to El Campo Police detective David Howard, the 21-year-old was chatting on her computer when something went awry.

"The lady was chatting with a guy in California and he made reference to wanting sex with minors," Howard said.

The woman ended the chat and called police, which is exactly what she should have done, Howard said.

"The case and all the information she provided will be referred to the California Attorney General's office, which has a cyber crimes unit," Howard said. "They will pick it up and intercept this guy and see what he's got going on."

Although the young woman in this case was old enough to know what to do when her encounter occurred, online predators often target children directly.

Parents can work to minimize the chances of this happening by doing the following:

• Restrict the hours children can spend online. As a general rule, the later at night one is online, the greater the risk becomes for being targeted by a pedophile.

• Check with your Internet provider to see if you can install a filter on your Internet security settings. This will allow you to control what your children can view to a certain extent.

• Monitor your children's activities. • Ask your children what they are doing online. Get involved with their activities. Knowledge is often prevention.

• Point out stories in the newspaper about cyber predators.

There's some things parents must make sure their children know they must never do. These include:

• Tell children they must not give out information over the Internet that would lead a person to that child in real life. Such information includes the child's last name, address, phone number and name of school.

• Children need to know they must never make secret arrangements for an in-person meeting with someone they've met through the Internet.

• Let your child know never to e-mail a picture of themselves to anyone you do not know.